Hide Your Fires

5: Please Don't

“Hallie, please don’t do this,” Matt begs of me as we walk into the school on Monday morning.

“Do what?” I wonder with raised eyebrows as I look down at my brother. With a four year age difference and five inch heels, I tower over him.

“I know that you’re going to try and talk to Tate about what happened on Saturday night but I am literally begging you not to do that,” He informs me.

“Why? Because he’s such a ‘good person’?” I wonder. “I don’t care if you’re in high school or not, Matt, you are only fourteen years old and he should not have given you that weed. Or let you drink.”

“He’s not my babysitter, Hallie, he’s my friend,” Matt argues, trying hard to keep up with my wide strides down the hallway. I’m not going to go find Tate right now because I’m sure that he’s swarmed with groupies right now that probably include Allison, I’m just going to wait until lunch to give him a piece of my mind. I think that I’m madder at Tate for giving Matt the weed than I am at Matt for smoking it. I don’t know why, that’s just how my mind works.

“That’s right, I am your babysitter. Or guardian or whatever so this is me doing just that. And if he was your friend, he shouldn’t let you destroy your body like that,” I argue with Matt.

“It’s not like he understands what’s at stake here. I didn’t tell him about… you know, the protective services or whatever so it’s not like he knows about what could have happened,” Matt tries to reason.

“Go to class, Matthew,” I tell him, tired of arguing redundantly with him like we have been all the way to school about this topic.

I turn the corner and abandon my brother in the hallway as I go towards my own classroom for the beginning of the day.

When lunch rolls around, I have about five texts from Matt, begging me not to confront Tate about giving him weed but I ignore most of them. I didn’t really punish him all that much so he can consider me embarrassing the poop out of him the rest of his punishment, I guess.

I go to the art room for a while though, that way the cafeteria is calm when I walk in. I don’t tell Erin about my plan because although she’s incredibly cool, she’s still a teacher and I don’t want to get my brother into academic trouble or anything. I do work on a few sketches for about twenty minutes though before I decide that I should go talk to Tate before lunch is over.

I pack up my sketchbook and tell Erin that I’m going to eat in the cafeteria today because I had to skip breakfast so she tells me to have a nice day and then I’m unleashed. I walk towards the cafeteria with the meanest looking scowl that I can muster. This guy has been in reform school for the past year so I’m confident that I will not intimidate him in the least, but I can sure try.

When I open the cafeteria doors, I make a straight line towards the table that’s ridden with a group of guys that include both my brother and my target. Matthew notices me first and his face blanches, as if he’s just seen a ghost, and he stands up from the table and starts walking over to me. This causes almost everyone at the table to turn and look in my direction but I don’t care. I’m going to talk to Tate whether my little brother likes it or not.

“Hallie, stop. You’re being ridiculous,” Matt informs me, placing a hand on my shoulder in an attempt to get me to not go forward with my plan.

“Maybe, but do you know what’s more ridiculous than me? Letting a fourteen year old kid do drugs,” I counter, pushing Matt’s hand off of my shoulder as my heels clack their way towards Tate, who is in the middle of a conversation with a blonde boy across the table from him.